Automattic Open Sources SaaS Editorial, Publishing Tools

One of the simplest methods of ensuring that your published words don't end up looking functionally illiterate is to use a spell checker. But what if you're in need of a bit more help?

You could pay an editor or make an agreement with a friend to edit each other's work. But you may not be able to afford an editor, or may not have any friends you wish to trust in this way, or may not have any friends, period. Sniff.

After the Deadline was already available for free to WordPress users. Now, Automattic -- a company name that all but begs for a spell checker -- has taken this spelling, grammar and style-checking tool, and released it under the GPL as open source. There are a number of client libraries for interfacing with the tool:

(And yes, we fed this article through the demo. It had a couple of reasonable complaints, one that made no sense, missed some items we had expected it to mark, and didn't completely choke on the URLs.)